Examples of Reflective Statements

The reflective statement must be based on the following question:

How was your understanding of cultural and contextual considerations of the work developed through the interactive oral?

The reflection is intended to indicate how the materials of the Interactive Oral expanded your sense of the context of the text being discussed. Evidence of such evolution is what Criterion A evaluates.

The examiner will be sent the Reflective Statement, which is written on the same text as the Written Assignment. Both parts of the exercise should help examiners to have a sense of a process that led to grounded observations about context.

Examples:

Reflective Statement: Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis

In our interactive oral, our class discussed how cultural aspects are used as a means of subjugation in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, and its impact on the societal context of the novel. We firstly explored the effect of imposed Western ideologies and values on Iran and on the development of the Islamic Revolution, the event which establishes the subject and themes of the text. Secondly, we discussed the different roles Islam acquires within the temporal boundaries of the story.

Prior to our discussion regarding the adoption of Western ideologies by the Shah before the Islamic Revolution, our class had not yet considered that this too was an action of imposition on Iranians. We considered how these inflicted values manifested themselves as laws which were antithetical to Iranian values during the 1980s, such as the legalisation of abortion and the banning of the veil in public, thus subduing the society.

We agreed that the Islamic Revolution was a populist movement that represented the desire to reintroduce Iranian culture, particularly through religion, as well as being an ideological opposition to Iran’s corrupt Shah and monarchy; although it is the latter which is the focus of the narrator’s activist parents.

Considering these factors, we gained a new understanding of the Islamic regime that took power after the Revolution and for the majority of the novel’s time frame. We perceived it as a vehement conservative backlash to the forced secularism of the Shah’s regime. This offered an explanation for the surge in the size of the Iranian army and the prevalence of the Guardian’s of the Revolution, the secret police used to enforce religious law, described by the narrator.

However, we also discussed the oppression present in the doctrine of the new government. While the fact is made clear through Satrapi’s illustration of the banning of alcohol and music, and of the separation of the sexes in education, we examined how religious symbols changed from being a means of freedom of expression before the Revolution, to a means of suppression after the Revolution. This change is most evident in the veil: banned before the Revolution, Marjane is later threatened on the street because she is not wearing it correctly. Similarly, we agreed that the Keyto Heaven given to young men to persuade them to join the army, was a manipulation of their faith, and thus a means of control exercised by the regime.

Word Count: 399

Reflective Statement: Albert Camus' The Outsider

Our interactive oral included a contextual presentation followed by a discussion. The presentation allowed me to explore Camus’ philosophy of absurdism, an important component of existentialism, which he developed whilst living in France in 1942 during the period of the Second World War. The terror of the Nazi regime, alongside the rising death toll on the battlefields, led Camus to the belief that human existence has no discernible meaning. This new knowledge of the philosophy helped me to understand why the protagonist Meursault fires at the Arab four successive times after killing him. Through this action, Camus demonstrates that because of Meursault’s inexorable faith in the death sentence due to his non-conforming character, the number of gunshots he fires will not affect the outcome in court.

In the discussion which followed after the presentation, my understanding of existentialism further matured. We discussed how religion and hope are rational structures created by people who cannot accept the absurd nature of an "indifferent universe". Meursault is an atheist unlike the judge of his case who is an ardent Catholic. When Meursault challenges his religious belief, the obstinate judge becomes impulsive and anxious because, without religion, his whole life would "have no meaning"; it would become absurd. I realised the importance of Catholicism in the book as a means of demonstrating how Meursault does not conform to the cultural norms of Algiers, then a colony of France. He is an atheist; his stoic manner at his mother’s funeral is unnatural and his brutal honesty distresses those around him. As a result, I understand that the protagonist was on trial for his character and not for the murder which he committed.

As the discussion progressed I also began to comprehend that Camus’ choice of an implausible trial was rooted in the French-Arab colonial history. The author, having lived in Algiers, criticises the French colonial government in his book. He sets “The Outsider" in the 1940s, before the successful Algerian War of Independence. During this period a pied-noir (a descendant of the French who was seen as superior to the colonised Arabs) would not have been sentenced to death for killing an indigenous Arab. By portraying the court as impartial between the two sides of the conflict, Camus openly denounces French-Algerian colonial culture.